His career in photography dates back to 1948. He became particularly well known for documenting South Africa’s developments throughout Apartheid and has accumulated an extensive body of work, for which he has won numerous awards: the 2006 Hasselblad Award; the 2009 Henri Cartier-Bresson Award; the 2013 International Centre for Photography Cornell Capa Lifetime Achievement Award; and the 2016 Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres; and he was an honorary fellow of The Royal Photographic Society.
Notedly, he founded the Market Photography Workshop in Johannesburg, was the first South African to be given a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and a retrospective of his work, ‘David Goldblatt Fifty-One Years’ began a tour of galleries and museums. TimesLive reports on this in more detail.
Goldblatt died in the early hours of the morning at the age of 87, and is survived by his wife, three children and two grandchildren.
Sad to hear of the passing of David Goldblatt, one of the most important photographers documenting developments in South Africa during the period of Apartheid. Thank you for your groundbreaking work.#davidgoldblatt
— The Independent Photographer (@indep_photo) June 25, 2018
©David Goldblatt. 3 women at Soper Road, Johannesburg, 1972 pic.twitter.com/JY1Jo66zRg
What a magnificent lens on our nation and on the world was shut today. Rest in power, #DavidGoldblatt. Your archive lives on. And long.
— Ferial Haffajee (@ferialhaffajee) June 25, 2018
Deeply saddened to hear about the passing of #DavidGoldblatt. A fine photographer, he was also an artist, journalist, historian. He documented the powerful as well as the powerless. Here his iconic pic of @CyrilRamaphosa and Roelf Meyer during the #Codesa negotiations. pic.twitter.com/TW72ag0FUX
— Pippa Green (@green_pippa) June 25, 2018
The passing of a South African legend #RIP #davidgoldblatt - his lens enabled us to really look and see - a subtle artist - fearless truth teller - a great loss. https://t.co/qQbqPHZ2Ag
— Aspasia Karras (@AspasiaKarras) June 25, 2018
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